Model of a heart, illuminated by a pulsing laser to measure flow patterns, at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria.

Even at night, a hospital room is never truly still. Loved ones maintain their vigil. Nurses check their patients. And the machinery of modern medicine clicks and whirs and beeps.

Reiner Riedler found a measure of serenity in that during the weeks he spent in a neonatal ward with his son six years ago. "In the night, when I was more sensitive and concentrated, that was a magic moment," he says. "There are just these machines, beeping and blinking."

He saw hope in those machines, a metaphor for the eternal fight for life. "These machines are a reflection of all efforts humans spend trying to survive," he says. "They're representations of life and death in hospitals—a way for people to associate their personal stories."

Fascinated by those machines, Riedler visited Vienna General Hospital months later and made a note of every machine in the intensive care unit. He wanted to photograph them, and spent months contacting 50 or so manufacturers. Most of them welcomed the opportunity to showcase their products, so the Viennese photographer spent five years photographing 200 medical devices in hospitals, universities, and other locations throughout Europe.

The result is The Lifesaving Machines, a fascinating look at modern medical technology.

Riedler most enjoyed visiting factories that build the machines and repair shops that keep them running because he could open them up. “You can see all the tubes, the liquid parts, the electronics, all separated from each other,” he says.

Shoots often lasted a full day. Riedler and his assistants placed a monochrome paper backdrop behind each device and meticulously positioned as many as 10 small flashes before photographing the machines with a Hasselblad H3D.

When Riedler visits hospitals these days, he no longer finds medical devices mysterious or worrisome. “My fear was transformed into curiosity—now, in a hospital, I’m curious about the apparatus.” He wonders at the machines that open humans up to fix what's inside—although Riedler doesn't try to dissect the devices himself. Leave that to the technicians.

The Lifesaving Machines was published asWill, a photobook from La Fabrica, in August.